Samsung will support boosting the domestic economy ahead of the Chuseok holiday by paying 1.3 trillion won in accounts payable to partners early and running an online marketplace for employees.
On the 14th, according to Samsung, 13 affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis, Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI, Samsung SDS, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung E&A, Cheil Worldwide, S-1, and Samsung Welstory, decided to pay 1.3 trillion won in accounts payable early before the Chuseok holiday.
The payment dates will be moved up about seven days earlier than originally scheduled by each company. Samsung said this is about 110 billion won more than the support provided during last year's Chuseok and aims to ease partners' funding burdens while increasing the impact on revitalizing the domestic economy.
Alongside early payment of accounts payable, Samsung is also running a "Chuseok online marketplace" for employees. Seventeen affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Card, Samsung Securities, and Hotel Shilla, are participating to sell specialty products from affiliate sister villages and goods produced at small and midsize enterprises' smart factories. Samsung employees purchase about 3 billion won worth of goods each holiday season, combining Lunar New Year and Chuseok, through the online marketplace, helping to boost regional economies.
In particular, 31 small and midsize enterprises that benefited from Samsung Electronics' "smart factory support" program are taking part in this marketplace, selling 53 items such as premium Korean beef, known as hanwoo, gift sets and fruit. Since 2015, Samsung Electronics has run a smart factory support program to enhance SMEs' manufacturing competitiveness, and as of August this year it has carried out a cumulative 3,622 projects. The supported companies are said to have significantly improved productivity, quality, and hygiene standards. Agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products such as apples, pears, and fish sold in the marketplace also received automation and process improvement support from the Samsung Electronics Smart Factory Center in the productization stages such as washing and packaging.
Meanwhile, Samsung is also moving to spread the benefits of growth in its core businesses, including semiconductors, to local economies. After Samsung Electronics released a plan in May to expand social contributions worth 5 trillion won, in June it held the "Together with the people, Samsung Electronics thanks festival," providing Onnuri gift certificates equal to 20% of the purchase amount to product buyers (30% for "K-heroes," including service members, police, firefighters, and corrections officers).
Then in July, Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Card, and Samsung Securities contributed 200 billion won to the Samsung Smile Microcredit Foundation to expand inclusive finance. The foundation provides unsecured, no-guarantee support for business operating funds, startup funds, and emergency living expenses to financially vulnerable people and small self-employed business owners.